Maestro Technologies - Intelligent management software for the construction industry.

Cloud computing: a true technological innovation?

Cloud computing: is this a new marketing concept or a true technological innovation?

If you are asking yourself this question, you can already see that it’s a bit of both. Cloud computing is a new concept made possible by the introduction of three technologies that have been emerging in recent years. It involves on-line applications (software as a service or SaaS), the increased availability of high-speed Internet access (broadband) and the virtualization of computer services.

On-line applications
For several years already, it has been possible to use on-line software applications by subscribing to annual subscriptions, with or without charge, for such services as Hotmail, gmail, Facebook and others. Some applications have existed for many years and are widely used. Salesforce.com and NetSuite.com are excellent examples.

High-speed Internet access
To take advantage of these Internet technologies, you must have a high-speed connection (in fact very high-speed). This is increasingly accessible regardless of the location. Whether you are at home or at the office, have a wired or wireless connection, available speeds are now powerful enough that we can make telephone calls, connect to office servers or download photos or music without undue delay.

Virtualization
This technology makes it possible for one server to work with one computer. Several computers were required for this before. Virtualization servers can run multiple Windows Server, Linux, Unix and other sessions at the same time. It is also possible to virtualize disk space so that all sessions are independent.

Obviously, as the number of sessions increases, it may become necessary to distribute the load onto more than one computer. Within a server cluster, the virtualization tools share various open sessions based on the capacity of each computer.

Cloud computing
The advent of cloud computing is the integration and evolution of these three technologies: on-line applications, high-speed Internet and virtualization. First we had application virtualization. In fact, our software has been migrated from our servers and computers to the Internet cloud. Installation and maintenance are no longer necessary. All you need to do is connect from any computer to access the service in question. The most popular are obviously the e-mail services, such as Hotmail and gmail. But this technology has evolved towards more corporate applications, such as sales management, financial, social networking, photo sharing and other applications. However, this type of service is not useful for all companies, since the application is usually the same for all users. Applications are configurable to a certain extent, but if there are specific requirements to be met, there is no real solution.

Although virtualization was initially used to optimize corporate computers, particularly by concentrating multiple services on a single computer, the Internet cloud makes it possible to outsource these services, as is also possible for applications. This allows us to avoid acquiring and maintaining an installed base of computers. Once on the cloud, you can access the various corporate services from any computer that can access the Internet.

This provides many benefits. On the financial side, you do not need to acquire, install and maintain one or more servers. When requirements increase, you do not need to add servers because the cloud automatically manages the increased load. Backup copies are not necessary and the usage cost usually varies according to use. This can be very interesting during a recession.

Naturally, there are also disadvantages to this approach. On the one hand, Internet access must be available and powerful. Furthermore, for many companies, exporting data and critical or confidential information can be difficult. On the other hand, integration with other local applications can prove difficult. These models are less customizable, and access to the data can be more difficult once the user leaves the service.

Many companies provide this type of service, such as
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/) and
Microsoft Azur (http://www.microsoft.com/azure/whatisazure.mspx).

The goal is the same for all: facilitate deployment, promote access at any time via the Internet and provide practically unlimited processing capacity and disk space.

There will always be a future for the current model on a local server. However, with the ability to use an increasing number of totally Web-based office automation software applications developed by industry giants like Google and Microsoft, we bet that Web access in our offices will become increasingly important in the future.

Robert Meunier